THE BOXER RISING IN CHINA
After the loss of the _Victoria_ Jellicoe served as Commander on
H.M.S. _Ramillies_, flagship in the Mediterranean.
Early in January, 1897, he joined the Ordnance Committee, and received
his promotion, attaining the rank of Captain.
But valuable as his services were now, as they had been when assistant
to Fisher, he was again not allowed to remain at the Admiralty for
long. Admiral Sir C. H. Seymour chose him as Flag Captain on the
_Centurion_. It is hardly necessary to point out that the _Centurion_
of 1898 is no longer on the active list, if indeed she exists at all.
H.M.S. _Centurion_, now "watching and waiting" somewhere in the North
Sea, was built in 1912, and belongs to the King George V. Class; she
has a displacement of 25,000 tons, and a speed of 21-1/2 knots.
The old _Centurion_ was a very different class of boat. She was on the
China Station, and when the Boxer Rising occurred in 1900--just as
we hoped we were finishing our work in South Africa under
Kitchener--Jellicoe found himself in the firing line again.
The Boxers were the moving spirit in a vast organization which had for
its object the extermination of Christian Missionaries and the
aggressive commercial white men who followed in their train.
"China for the Chinese" might be translated as their popular war cry.
The Dowager Empress of China was, if not at the head of the movement,
certainly at the back of it, in spite of her protestations to the
contrary.
The Chinese are the most conservative people in the world. They love
and respect the traditions of their race as they love and respect
their Ancestors. The "foreign" missionaries, railway concessionaries,
mining agents and other outriders of modern civilization threatened to
destroy and outrage their cherished ideas and institutions. They did
not particularly object to the British; the Englishman--when he did
not try to convert them--was the least hated of the foreign devils.
Americans, French, Russians, Germans, were all hated and feared.
The Boxers decreed that they would have to go. The rebellion started
quietly enough, but once having started it spread with alarming
rapidity until Europe saw itself face to face with the Yellow Peril.
China threatened to over-run the Western Continent.
Proclamations were issued by the Boxers in all the towns and villages
of the great Empire and appeared on the walls of Pekin itself.
"The voice of the great God of the Unseen World--
"Disturbances are to be dreaded from the foreign devils; everywhere
they are starting missions, erecting telegraphs, and building
railways; they do not believe in the sacred doctrine, and they speak
evil of the gods. Their sins are numberless as the hairs of the head.
Therefore am I wroth, and my thunders have pealed forth.... The will
of Heaven is that the telegraph wires be first cut, then the railways
torn up, and then shall the foreign devils be decapitated. In that day
shall the hour of their calamities come...."
And forthwith the Boxers arranged that disturbances should commence at
once. They commenced with pillages and robberies. The Empress launched
edicts against the rising, while secretly she encouraged it. Soon a
direct attack was made on all Christians; missionaries were tortured
and murdered. Churches set on fire and houses torn down.
One or two Legations in Pekin were destroyed. On May the 1st the
German Minister, Baron von Kettener, was assassinated.
This was the signal for a general rising, and all the Legations in
Pekin were besieged, the Imperial troops joining in the attack. Sir
Claude MacDonald had been assured that there was no danger whatsoever.
He was appointed commander of the Legation Quarter by the foreign
representatives, and a plucky resistance was made.
Early in June he sent a telegram to Sir Edward Seymour, Commander of
the China Station, informing him the situation was perilous, and
warning him that unless the Legations were soon relieved a general
massacre would take place.
Seymour acted as quickly as possible, and with a force of two
thousand men he started to the relief of Pekin.
This little army was composed of men and guns drawn from the ships of
the eight Great Powers then in Chinese waters. Great Britain--who
provided nearly a thousand men--France, Italy, Russia, the United
States, Japan, Austria and Germany. Their combined artillery consisted
only of nineteen guns.
Captain Jellicoe was given command of the British Naval Contingent,
and the whole force was under the command of Admiral Seymour. Mr.
Whittall, Reuter's correspondent, accompanied the column, and he gave,
in the diary which he kept, a very graphic account of the fighting of
the allied forces, their failure to relieve Pekin, their attempt to
get back to Tientsin, Jellicoe's bad luck in getting dangerously
wounded--it was feared, fatally, at the time--and the narrow escape of
the whole force from annihilation.
"We left Laufang at dawn on June the 13th," he wrote, "and arrived at
Tientsin at 12.30 p.m. without incident.
"We left Tientsin again at 2 a.m., but the Marines were at Yangtsun,
and the Chinese officials declined to take the responsibility of
affording protection, so we took them on with us. At Lofa we found
three trucks derailed, and so remained there all night outside 'Fort
Endymion.' We moved out from Lofa about midnight on June 14th for
headquarters, but found that they had been removed further up the
line. A party of Americans, foraging, ran across a band of 150 Boxers
and fired on them, killing six and wounding many others. The
_Aurora's_ advance party was attacked about six-and-a-half miles up
the line by a large force of the Boxers, who tried to rush them, but
the bluejackets kept them off, killing and wounding some 150.
"Last night a courier arrived from Pekin, and said that everything was
well in the city when he left, but that many Boxers were openly
showing themselves in the city. At ten this morning a most determined
attempt was made to rush the headquarters' train by a large body of
Boxers. The small-bore rifle bullets seemed to have no effect in
stopping the rush, and the fanatics came on most gallantly. The Maxim
was got into action at the range of about fifty yards, and mowed the
enemy like grass. This was enough for them, and they fled into the
country.
"In the afternoon an attack was made on Lofa by two thousand Boxers,
but they were driven off, with a loss of seventy-five men. Our
casualties were said to be four slightly wounded. In the evening
Johnstone returned, having raided all the villages bordering the line,
killing forty or fifty Boxers. He reports all track in a fearful
state, rails, etc., being up for miles at a stretch. The courier who
brought letters from Pekin on Tuesday returned with letters for Pekin.
"Matters seem to be getting more serious. Report of the Japanese
having been murdered by Tung Fu-hsiang's men confirmed. Grand stand
burned, students attacked by Boxers with swords, Boxers burning
missions and foreign buildings other than Legations. Boxers cut the
throats of the wounded before running. We had two of _Endymion's_
bluejackets wounded at Lofa, one shot through the lungs with a stone
from a small iron cannon. We took two of these guns. The Italian dead
were shockingly mutilated. One Boxer, a boy of thirteen, was brought
in wounded.
"Up at 4 a.m. and started again for Tientsin. Found the line below
Lofa cut in four places, in one of which the embankment had been dug
out to a depth of some four feet. We received the news that the Boxers
were hard at work three miles above Yangtsun tearing up the track. At
5 a.m. saw a body numbering from 200 to 300 strong, enter a large
village to the right of the line. We afterwards foraged in another
village to the left, where we got some chickens and leeks and then set
fire to it. We had this day a guard of 120 Germans and 50 French with
us."
The relief force had now been fighting for a week without making any
real progress. Meanwhile, the news that came from Pekin was grave in
the extreme. Several attempts were made to send messages through but
without success.
Captain Jellicoe sent a body of marines and blue-jackets, under Major
Johnstone, to Yangtsun with the intention of opening friendly
relations with the people, and after a great deal of trouble, this was
done, and food was obtained for the hungry troops.
But every day the situation became more serious. Owing to all the
rails having been cut the trains were held up and a night attack was
expected. For six days no news had come from Tientsin.
Eventually the order came to abandon the trains--fifty thousand pounds
of rolling stock, and practically all the baggage--and march on
Tientsin with half rations for three days.
This, of course, would meet with Jellicoe's approval ... hitting
quickly and hitting hard.
A day was spent making preparations for the march. Every man of the
expedition knew it was a desperate venture, but not one was dismayed.
But Mr. Whittall, in his diary, wonders how much of the unfortunate
expedition is likely to reach Tientsin in safety.
"Progress was," he says, "very slow at first owing to want of water
for the boats, which were constantly getting ashore. At 7.20 p.m. the
column halted and bivouacked for the night, which passed without
incident. Gunfiring in the direction of Tientsin reported to have been
heard.
"Réveillé" sounded at 4 a.m. Column marched 6.15; Hangu, 7.30; halted
while town was searched by advance guard; 8.5, Chinese army reported
advancing; 8.25, American 3-inch opened on enemy in a copse flanking
river in line of our advance.
"Conflicting reports as to character of enemy, some saying only
Boxers, others Imperial troops. 9.5, I went up to the firing line.
Enemy strongly posted in a village ahead. 9.0, our 9-pounders came
into action at 450 yards. Enemy retired, under the heavy shrapnel
fire, and a party of Americans went ahead to examine village. One
_Aurora_ wounded accidentally.
"First volleys fired very heavy; when enemy found range too close to
be pleasant; 9.50, column resumed advance, two Russians wounded.
Village ahead reported full of the enemy. Our 9-pounders ordered up;
opened fire 10.31. Americans advance with French on left, our Marines
advance under cover of the river bank. 2.20, while troops resting, we
were attacked. Enemy driven off, one American dangerously wounded.
"Column resumed its advance on both banks of the river. Three Chinese
field-guns observed moving in the direction of Peitsang. Sounds of
heavy firing in the direction of Tientsin again heard all the morning.
Natives report it is General Nieh fighting Boxers.
"8.15, large body of cavalry seen on our left flank which were at
first taken for Russians; but a shell pitched unpleasantly near our
flanking parties from the left of the village the cavalry had just
passed, convinced us that they must be Nieh's cavalry. Our guns were
soon in action, replying to the enemy's fire, and the rattle of
musketry became general."
It was the mistaking this large body of enemy cavalry for a relieving
force of Cossacks that nearly cost Jellicoe his life. The Chinese
Cavalry was hailed, and replied with a volley. Jellicoe rallied his
men and boldly charged them.
He helped clear them out, but fell shot in the chest. Mr. Whittall
made the following brief entry in his diary at the time:
"Flag-captain Jellicoe, _Centurion_, dangerously wounded in the chest;
feared mortally. Lieutenant Bamber, also of the _Centurion_, and
Midshipman Burke also both wounded. The enemy's fire throughout the
day was also terrific, and for the most part fairly well aimed."
He pays a high compliment to Captain Jellicoe, for he says that it was
owing to the splendid way in which the British troops were handled
that the casualties were no heavier than they were.
The response of the men was splendid, and their behaviour under a
terrific fire excellent.
But Mr. Whittall acknowledges that "it was a shocking business."